This invention relates to insulated doors and, more particularly, to insulated doors having outer panels with folded sides.
Insulated doors for refrigerators, freezers of similar cabinets are typically formed from an outer panel of steel and an inner panel of plastic. The conventional method of construction has been to fold the four edges of the outer panel to form sides, screw the four edges of the inner panel to return flanges formed on these four edges, and pack the space between the inner and outer panels with insulating material.
Another insulated door is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,972. In this patent, the inner and outer panels together define a hollow enclosed chamber and into this chamber a foamed insulating material is placed, substantially filling the chamber and helping to interconnect the face and the drum.
However, a problem with conventional methods is that folding the four edges of the outer panel to form the four sides necessitates a press tool matching the size of the outer panel. Differences in the vertical dimension, even though the horizontal dimension might not vary, means that a special tool has to be provided for each size. This increases the cost of manufacture of the outer panel and hence of the insulated door.